Midlife Crisis at 30: How the Stakes Have Changed for a New Generation--And What to Do about It [Hardcover]

Lia Macko (Author), Kerry Rubin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 2004

At 30 ...

Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro was a stay-at-home mother. Founder and CEO of Oxygen Media Geraldine Laybourne was working at a public interest think tank for teachers. Political strategist Mary Matalin was a first-year law student-- and about to drop out. And months prior to her thirtieth birthday, financial strategist and best-selling author Suze Orman was working as a waitress, making $400 a month.

Decades later, these Boomer women and many others have reached the pinnacles of their professions. So why do Gen-X/Y women feel such pressure to have the perfect career, body, husband, and kids by the time they are at or around 30? Why has 30 become such a make-or-break moment?

As the generation that came of age after the most visible glass ceilings had been broken, Gen-X/Y women were raised to believe in futures without limitations. Yet, as journalists Lia Macko and Kerry Rubin reveal in their fascinating investigation, many women have distorted the well-intentioned empowerment messages of their youth and are quietly blaming themselves when they fail to overcome the very real obstacles that still exist in our society. Though many Gen-X/Y women are hitting the same roadblocks at the same time, instead of questioning what's wrong with the system-- as Boomer women did in their twenties-- they're questioning their own "choices."

Searching for solutions, Macko and Rubin have enlisted the aid of the New Girls' Club, a group of successful, satisfied women who've lived through their own crossroads moments, earned their battle scars, and now share their stories and strategies. While today's young women may indeed be a generation in the middle of a Midlife Crisis at 30, they now have a dream team of mentors to help guide them through it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Successful, high-energy media professionals Macko (a CNBC producer) and Rubin (a CNN producer) sensed there was a problem plaguing women of a certain age-the early 30s. So many of them were wondering, in the midst of lives that were supposedly on track, why they felt "so miserable." In Part One of this volume, the authors attempt to identify and label the components of 30-something angst, which include changing career parameters, the question of when (or whether) to get married and have a family, and how to find real fulfillment versus a great-paying job. Then anecdotes from real women comfort readers by helping them realize that they aren't alone in their difficult-to-define struggles. Even better, however, are the stories from well-known women in Part Two, "The New Girls Club: Your Dream of Mentors." In this section, women like Judy Blume, fitness guru Denise Austen and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison explain how they dealt with the issues facing them in their 30s and, in many cases, tell readers how they completely re-vamped their lives to become hugely successful, personally and professionally. These triumphant stories should inspire women in their 30s, and anyone else contemplating a serious life overhaul.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"As I read Midlife at 30, I felt a wave of relief: I'm not the only one in a panic at the doorstep of my 30th birthday! It's about time someone exposed the underside of 'having it all' and the pressure to follow in our supermoms' steps."--Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; First Edition edition (March 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579548679
• ISBN-13: 978-1579548674
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #197,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but....., July 10, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Midlife Crisis at 30: How the Stakes Have Changed for a New Generation--And What to Do about It (Hardcover)

When I first started reading this book, I raved about it and told all my friends that they would have to read it. I'm having my own midlife crisis at 33 because I'm facing gender discrimination in my career, which is blocking me from achieving what I want and know I can do. I was agonizing over making a drastic career change, when my incredibly supportive husband bought this book for me. He thought it would help to know I wasn't alone in my unhappiness.

And it did help. We Gen-X women were brought up to believe that equality had been achieved and if only we work hard enough we could do whatever we want. And when we don't accomplish all of our dreams, we tend to blame ourselves, instead of the system. At the same time, our entire generation is agonizing about spending too much time at work and missing out on a life.

But somewhere in the middle, it became tedious. It took me forever to finish, because I grew tired of reading yet another story about an ultra-successful woman with baby fever. As a woman who loves children but doesn't want any of her own, the book lost me. A few things actually bothered me, like the "Baby Envy" section and a general sense that the only women faced with work/life crises were mothers. There are plenty of women that struggle to find a balance between career and family, even if that family is a husband, siblings, or close friends.

I wish the authors had more analysis of what's causing the pervasive work/life imbalances and how we should stick together to make a change for all of us. When I read the chapter on men's perspectives, I kept thinking, "We shouldn't be concerned about bosses discriminating against parents because they leave work before 6:30, we should be concerned that bosses are expecting any of their employees to work that long in the first place!

There were many insightful observations and perspectives that I hadn't considered before, and for that I'm glad I read the book. I found the first and last two chapters to be the most influential on me. I'm not as enthusiastic as many other reviewers, but I do recommend this book to everyone in Generation X/Y, and to even a few boomers that want to understand why their children are so troubled when they seem to "have it all."

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great book but not for every woman, May 25, 2005

By 

ReadingTurtle (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Midlife Crisis at 30: How the Stakes Have Changed for a New Generation--And What to Do about It (Hardcover)

While this is an excellant book if you are a career woman, the authors make one huge mistake. They write that a woman's life phases follows this order 1.Work 2.Marriage 3.Kids. They never met me, because my life has followed this order. 1.Kid 2.Marriage 3.Work? I write work with a question mark because I am a 29 year old stay-at-home mother who realizes that I should have gone to college and had a career too. I didn't go to college because I got pregnant and married when I was 18 (and had three more children over the years) and have been a homemaker ever since. Now as I approach 30, I find myself yearning for a career, not a baby. I did find the story about Judy Blume inspiring because she was a stay-at-home mom at thirty and later became a writer. I am an aspiring writer as well. But the rest of the book just wasn't what I was looking for.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book if baby-making is your main goal in life., April 11, 2006

By 

Cheryl Ferry (Chicago) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Midlife Crisis at 30: How the Stakes Have Changed for a New Generation--And What to Do about It (Hardcover)

This book is for women who have or want to have children. Period. I am 29 years old, and do not hear a biological clock ticking. In fact, the older I get, the less I want children. I knew the book would touch on motherhood, but I was hoping it wasn't the main drive of the book. Instead I read page after page of women whining about how to juggle a career and a family. If that is something you're struggling with, then by all means, get this book. If you're not thinking about motherhood, and especially if you are child-free by choice, don't waste your time.